Sibusiso Mkwanazi from The Citizen spoke to Roger Smith about his latest crime-thriller, Capture, which Mkwanazi says “sends chills down your spine”.

Smith spoke about how he “was interested in showing the contrast between privileged Cape Town and the Cape Flats – where the rape, murder and child abuse statistics are mind-blowing – and I also wanted to portray the reality of many people’s lives, without sentimentalising that reality, even if it’s uncomfortable.”

Capture, the latest novel by South African crime writer Roger Smith, sends chills down your spine as soon as you are introduced to its characters, whose lives are forever altered by a single tragedy that could have been prevented.

Readers meet Nick Exley, a computer programme designer who is married to the mentally unsound Caroline. The two often butt heads on how to raise their child, Sunny, in the upmarket suburb of Llandudno, which is often “penetrated” by residents from the Cape Flats.